{"id":3336,"date":"2024-10-16T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2025-08-28T10:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T15:35:20","slug":"the-alchemist-a-gesture-based-3d-user-interface-for-engaging-arithmetic-calculations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/2024\/10\/16\/the-alchemist-a-gesture-based-3d-user-interface-for-engaging-arithmetic-calculations\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alchemist: A Gesture-Based 3D User Interface for Engaging Arithmetic Calculations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This project presents our solution to the IEEE VR 2024 3DUI contest. We present The Alchemist, a VR experience tailored to aid children in practicing and mastering the four fundamental mathematical operators. In The Alchemist, players embark on a fantastical journey where they must prepare three potions to break a malevolent curse imprisoning the Gobbler kingdom. Our contributions include the development of a novel number input interface, Pinwheel, an extension of PizzaText, as well as four novel gestures, each corresponding to a distinct mathematical operator, designed to assist children in retaining practice with these operations. Preliminary tests indicate that Pinwheel and the four associated gestures facilitate the quick and efficient execution of mathematical operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Alchemist: A Gesture-Based 3D User Interface for Engaging Arithmetic Calculations\" width=\"1778\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zggBNpZ-IAs?modestbranding=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"366\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit-1024x366.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit-1024x366.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit-768x274.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit-1536x549.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/TEASER_FINAL_FRFRedit.jpg 1998w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Operator gestures in the real world and within the virtual environment: (A1-2) Controller separation subtraction gesture. (B1-B2) Controller merge addition gesture. (C1-C2) Controller cross multiplication gesture. (D1-D2) Controller slice division gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><div class=\"teachpress_pub_list\"><form name=\"tppublistform\" method=\"get\"><a name=\"tppubs\" id=\"tppubs\"><\/a><\/form><div class=\"teachpress_publication_list\"><h3 class=\"tp_h3\" id=\"tp_h3_inproceedings\">Proceedings Articles<\/h3><div class=\"tp_publication tp_publication_inproceedings\"><div class=\"tp_pub_info\"><p class=\"tp_pub_author\">Logan Lane; Alexander Giovannelli; Ibrahim Tahmid; Francielly Rodrigues; Cory Ilo; Darren Hsu; Christos Lougiakis; Shakiba Davari; Doug A. Bowman<\/p><p class=\"tp_pub_title\"><a class=\"tp_title_link\" onclick=\"teachpress_pub_showhide('221','tp_links')\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\">The Alchemist: A Gesture-Based 3D User Interface for Engaging Arithmetic Calculations<\/a> <span class=\"tp_pub_type tp_  inproceedings\">Proceedings Article<\/span> <\/p><p class=\"tp_pub_additional\"><span class=\"tp_pub_additional_in\">In: <\/span><span class=\"tp_pub_additional_booktitle\">2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), <\/span><span class=\"tp_pub_additional_pages\">pp. 1106-1107, <\/span><span class=\"tp_pub_additional_year\">2024<\/span>.<\/p><p class=\"tp_pub_menu\"><span class=\"tp_resource_link\"><a id=\"tp_links_sh_221\" class=\"tp_show\" onclick=\"teachpress_pub_showhide('221','tp_links')\" title=\"Show links and resources\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\">Links<\/a><\/span> | <span class=\"tp_bibtex_link\"><a id=\"tp_bibtex_sh_221\" class=\"tp_show\" onclick=\"teachpress_pub_showhide('221','tp_bibtex')\" title=\"Show BibTeX entry\" style=\"cursor:pointer;\">BibTeX<\/a><\/span><\/p><div class=\"tp_bibtex\" id=\"tp_bibtex_221\" style=\"display:none;\"><div class=\"tp_bibtex_entry\"><pre>@inproceedings{10536565,<br \/>\r\ntitle = {The Alchemist: A Gesture-Based 3D User Interface for Engaging Arithmetic Calculations},<br \/>\r\nauthor = {Logan Lane and Alexander Giovannelli and Ibrahim Tahmid and Francielly Rodrigues and Cory Ilo and Darren Hsu and Christos Lougiakis and Shakiba Davari and Doug A. Bowman},<br \/>\r\ndoi = {10.1109\/VRW62533.2024.00347},<br \/>\r\nyear  = {2024},<br \/>\r\ndate = {2024-01-01},<br \/>\r\nbooktitle = {2024 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)},<br \/>\r\npages = {1106-1107},<br \/>\r\nkeywords = {},<br \/>\r\npubstate = {published},<br \/>\r\ntppubtype = {inproceedings}<br \/>\r\n}<br \/>\r\n<\/pre><\/div><p class=\"tp_close_menu\"><a class=\"tp_close\" onclick=\"teachpress_pub_showhide('221','tp_bibtex')\">Close<\/a><\/p><\/div><div class=\"tp_links\" id=\"tp_links_221\" style=\"display:none;\"><div class=\"tp_links_entry\"><ul class=\"tp_pub_list\"><li><i class=\"ai ai-doi\"><\/i><a class=\"tp_pub_list\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1109\/VRW62533.2024.00347\" title=\"Follow DOI:10.1109\/VRW62533.2024.00347\" target=\"_blank\">doi:10.1109\/VRW62533.2024.00347<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><p class=\"tp_close_menu\"><a class=\"tp_close\" onclick=\"teachpress_pub_showhide('221','tp_links')\">Close<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This project presents our solution to the IEEE VR 2024 3DUI contest. We present The Alchemist, a VR experience tailored to aid children in practicing and mastering the four fundamental mathematical operators. In The Alchemist, players embark on a fantastical journey where they must prepare three potions to break a malevolent curse imprisoning the Gobbler <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/2024\/10\/16\/the-alchemist-a-gesture-based-3d-user-interface-for-engaging-arithmetic-calculations\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":3339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14,536,78],"ppma_author":[487,479,395,501,466,537,534,400,391],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-3d-interaction-techniques","tag-contest-project","tag-virtual-reality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-2024-10-16-at-10.21.16\u202fAM-scaled.jpg","authors":[{"term_id":487,"user_id":381,"is_guest":0,"slug":"logantl","display_name":"Logan Lane","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/08\/IMG_6124.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/08\/IMG_6124.jpg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"https:\/\/loganlane.me","last_name":"Lane","first_name":"Logan","job_title":"","description":"Logan is a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Tech. His research centers around the predictive modeling of interactions with 3D user interfaces. He is also researching ways to use AR\/VR head worn displays in sports training and film review, specifically with American football."},{"term_id":479,"user_id":383,"is_guest":0,"slug":"agiovannelli","display_name":"Alexander Giovannelli","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/05\/IMG_6776-e1651771320966.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/05\/IMG_6776-e1651771320966.jpg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"https:\/\/agiovannelli.github.io\/","last_name":"Giovannelli","first_name":"Alexander","job_title":"","description":"My expertise lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, extended reality, and computer-supported cooperative work. I investigate how immersive environments can support effective remote and cross-temporal collaboration, with a growing focus on integrating AI assistance into collaborative XR workflows."},{"term_id":395,"user_id":330,"is_guest":0,"slug":"iatahmid","display_name":"Ibrahim Tahmid","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2020\/12\/ibrahim.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2020\/12\/ibrahim.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.iatahmid.com\/","last_name":"Tahmid","first_name":"Ibrahim","job_title":"","description":"Ibrahim is a fifth year Ph.D. Student advised by Dr. Doug Bowman. His research interest focuses on assisted sensemaking in virtual reality. More specifically, he works on how eye gaze can be used to infer the user-perceived relevance of information during sensemaking and how to leverage that inference to build intelligent recommender models for the immersive space to think."},{"term_id":501,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"francielly","display_name":"Francielly (Elly) Rodrigues","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2025\/10\/D9E7D095-A562-459F-A5D2-77F36EE71D1C-scaled.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2025\/10\/D9E7D095-A562-459F-A5D2-77F36EE71D1C-scaled.jpeg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/franciellyrodrigues","last_name":"Rodrigues","first_name":"Francielly (Elly)","job_title":"Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow","description":"<span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Francielly (Elly) Rodrigues is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech\u2019s College of Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in Computational Modeling from the National Laboratory of Scientific Computing in Brazil. Her research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. Her interests center on context-aware and intelligent Extended Reality (iXR) systems, particularly how immersive interfaces can sense contextual information about the user, task, and environment, reason over it, and adapt accordingly. This adaptability is essential for XR to be practical and effective in everyday life. The broader impact of her work is to create XR solutions that enhance productivity, communication, well-being, and accessibility across a wide range of applications, from education and medicine to everyday tasks.<\/span>"},{"term_id":466,"user_id":335,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ciilo","display_name":"Cory Ilo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/715e42664b3358101cfe4bb556a94092a52552fe4fa5351e072c24c70bc8252b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/cilo9737\/","last_name":"Ilo","first_name":"Cory","job_title":"","description":"The goal of my research is to build smart interaction techniques and\/or intelligent user interfaces which adapt to the user's total context, e.g. environment, user task, time of day, location, etc. Essentially, the AR system should be able to infer the user's intent to aid interaction or dynamically adjust user interfaces by utilizing the surrounding, inherent context.\r\n\r\nAside from research, my passions include video games, fitness, and traveling. One day, I hope to make open-world AR video games, where your body functions as the controller, a reality!"},{"term_id":537,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"darren-hsu","display_name":"Darren Hsu","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""},{"term_id":534,"user_id":451,"is_guest":0,"slug":"chrislou","display_name":"Christos Lougiakis","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/19ab7e13fe2f8843dc1b0533539f6c0e694a235be9fdb980c0b7faaa708eccbc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"http:\/\/users.uoa.gr\/~chrislou\/","last_name":"Lougiakis","first_name":"Christos","job_title":"","description":"I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). In 2023 I was awarded with the Fulbright\/IKY scholarship and joined the 3D Interaction Group as a Visiting Scholar for 6 months. My research is focused on exploring physics-based hand interaction in XR and its effects on human perception and user experience.\r\n\r\nMy area of expertise is 3D interaction and UX design and development for XR. Interested in effective, intuitive and embodied interactivity in single- and multi-user experiences. Passionate about shaping the future of our interactions with virtual environments and other people in XR mediums."},{"term_id":400,"user_id":254,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sdavari","display_name":"Shakiba Davari","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2020\/11\/sdavari.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2020\/11\/sdavari.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Davari","first_name":"Shakiba","job_title":"","description":"With a background spanning human-computer interaction (HCI), applied machine learning (ML), and UX\/UI design, my work bridges AI and design, creating frameworks and principles to address real-world challenges and deliver meaningful user experiences.\r\nDuring my Ph.D., I focused on intelligent Augmented and eXtended Reality (AR\/XR) interfaces exploring ways to make AR more adaptive and user-centered. I developed context-aware AR solutions to enhance usability, efficiency, and social interaction while addressing AR challenges such as spatial layout, occlusion, and social intrusiveness in dynamic scenarios. My dissertation provides a roadmap for integrating AI with AR design and establishes frameworks and design principles for effective AR across various contexts."},{"term_id":391,"user_id":331,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dbowman","display_name":"Doug Bowman","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2021\/01\/professional_photo2_2019-cropped-square-smaller-scaled.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2021\/01\/professional_photo2_2019-cropped-square-smaller-scaled.jpg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"","last_name":"Bowman","first_name":"Doug","job_title":"","description":"Doug A. Bowman is the Frank J. Maher Professor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cs.vt.edu\">Computer Science<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vt.edu\">Virginia Tech<\/a>. He is the principal investigator of the <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/\">3D Interaction Group<\/a>, focusing on the topics of three-dimensional user interfaces, VR\/AR user experience, and the benefits of immersion in virtual environments.\r\n\r\nDr. Bowman is one of the co-authors of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pearson.com\/us\/higher-education\/program\/La-Viola-3-D-User-Interfaces-Theory-and-Practice-2nd-Edition\/PGM101825.html\">3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice<\/a>. He has served in many roles for the <a href=\"http:\/\/ieeevr.org\">IEEE Virtual Reality Conference<\/a>, including program chair, general chair, and steering committee chair. He also co-founded the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (now part of IEEE VR). He received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his work on 3D Interaction, and has been named an ACM Distinguished Scientist. He received the Technical Achievement award from the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee in 2014 and the Career Impact Award from IEEE ISMAR in 2021.\r\n\r\nHis undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science is from Emory University, and he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/people.cs.vt.edu\/~bowman\/cv.pdf\">Curriculum vitae (PDF)<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3463,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}